Trump declares coronavirus fight close to end

AFP - Agence France Presse

March 24, 2020

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SHOTLIST
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES
MARCH 24, 2020
SOURCE: AFPTV
1. SOUNDBITE 1 - Donald Trump, President of the United States (male, English, 15 sec):
"Easter is a very special day for many reasons, for me, for a lot of our friends it's a very special day. What a great timeline this would be. Easter is our timeline. What a great timeline that would be."
2. SOUNDBITE 2 - Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (male, English, 21 sec):
"[Reporter: Where are you now with this timeline of 19 days from now?]
This is very flexible. We just had a conversation with the president in the oval office talking about, you know, you can look at a date but you've got to be very flexible on a literally day by day and week by week basis you need to evaluate the feasibility of what you're trying to do."
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3 DEPECHES DE CONTEXTE:
2ndlead
Congress homes in on $2 trillion rescue for virus-hit US economy
By Michael Mathes
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ATTENTION - ADDS quotes, stock rally, background ///
Washington, March 24, 2020 (AFP) -
US lawmakers scrambled Tuesday to seal a deal that buttresses the teetering economy by giving roughly $2 trillion to hospitals, businesses and ordinary Americans buckling under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic.
"At this point, of the few outstanding issues, I don't see any that can't be overcome in the next few hours," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer told the chamber after meeting Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The optimism, shared by Republican leaders and Mnuchin, was a ray of hope after vicious partisan infighting over how to craft what ultimately may be the largest emergency rescue package lawmakers have ever passed.
The Senate failed on multiple occasions in recent days to advance a massive but controversial Republican-led proposal, and pressure has soared to swiftly reach a compromise that provides relief for hundreds of millions of Americans.
President Donald Trump called for an immediate resolution to the stalemate.
"Congress must approve the deal, without all of the nonsense, today," he said on Twitter.
"The longer it takes, the harder it will be to start up our economy. Our workers will be hurt!"
But Trump also acknowledged that he nixed an initial compromise package in part because Democrats included "terrible" environmental regulations.
"I said I'm not signing this," Trump told a televised town hall.
As the day got underway, US stocks, which had shed one third of their value since the crisis hit US shores in February, soared on the prospects of a stimulus that could send checks to Americans potentially amounting to more than $3,000 for a family-of-four.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 11.4 percent.
Democrats rejected the original Republican package, arguing it put corporations ahead of workers, including health professionals on the front lines of the battle against a pandemic that has infected nearly 50,000 people and killed 600 in the United States.
But an agreement appeared within reach after days of intense negotiations between Republicans, Democrats and Trump administration officials.
"We are very close," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told members.
"It's taken a lot of noise and a lot of rhetoric to get us here," the top Republican added. "I hope today is the day this body will get it done."
As the hours ticked away without a deal in hand, and as negotiators refined the language of a package so huge that it would impact every sector of the US economy, several lawmakers voiced their anxiety.
"Americans can't wait any longer!" tweeted top House Republican Kevin McCarthy.
- 'Finish line' -
Any relief package that passes the Senate will need to clear the Democratic-led House too before going to the president's desk.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed confidence the Senate deal could be done soon.
"We're in the red zone and hopefully we can get it over the finish line," the powerful California Democrat told CNN.
She suggested the measure might even pass the House by unanimous consent.
Such a move would cut through eliminate floor debate and save time, and importantly not require members of the House, currently on recess, to return to Washington to vote amid the crisis.
But getting 435 lawmakers to swallow a gargantuan rescue package without a chance to weigh in could be an uphill proposition in a sharply divided chamber.
McConnell's opening bid included onetime "recovery rebates" of up to $1,200 for most adults, and hundreds of billions of dollars in loan guarantees to industries hit by the crisis, including airlines, and to small businesses.
Democrats fumed that the measure did not mandate that companies keep their employees on payroll, provided insufficient oversight on corporations receiving the infusions, and needed more aid for hospitals desperate for military equipment like protective gear, intensive care beds and ventilators.
Those shortcomings were addressed in the compromise, according to Democratic leaders.
Schumer said it will almost certainly include a guarantee the federal government will broaden eligibility of unemployment insurance and offer expanded benefits for four months to workers sickened by or sacked due to the pandemic.
Pelosi meanwhile unveiled a more generous, roughly $2.5 trillion counterproposal that included ambitious elements like guaranteed paid and family medical leave, student loan forgiveness and oversight of the $500 billion earmarked for corporations.
"Much of what we have in our bill is reflected in this supposed agreement, what we've seen so far," Pelosi said.
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PROFILE
New York 'tough guy' Cuomo center stage in US coronavirus fight
By Peter HUTCHISON
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New York, March 24, 2020 (AFP) -
America's coronavirus crisis has thrust New York Governor Andrew Cuomo into the national spotlight, his no-nonsense yet empathetic style contrasting with President Donald Trump's and developing him a fan following.
The Democrat has been a reassuring presence for many Americans during his televised daily updates on efforts to contain the outbreak that has killed 600 people across the United States.
"He's really come across as someone of presidential stature," Columbia University politics professor Robert Shapiro, told AFP.
"It's comparable in some ways to the 9/11 attacks when Rudolph Giuliani rose to the occasion and became the nation's mayor, so to speak."
The hard-nosed Cuomo is credited with keeping New York on the front foot in the battle against the coronavirus since the state, now the epicenter of America's pandemic fight, declared its first case on March 1.
The 62-year-old was quick to invoke executive powers to engage National Guard soldiers, boost hospital beds and order New Yorkers to stay indoors -- and even launched a government-made brand of hand sanitizer.
Cuomo has politics in his blood -- his father Mario Cuomo served three terms as the Democratic governor of New York state between 1983 and 1994.
- Kennedy dynasty -
The younger Cuomo was born in Queens in December 1957.
He married Kerry Kennedy -- daughter of former US Attorney General Robert Kennedy, brother to assassinated President John F. Kennedy -- in 1990. They divorced 15 years later.
After practising law, Cuomo worked for Bill Clinton's adminstration in the 1990s and in 2006 he was elected Attorney General of New York.
In January 2011, he followed in his father footsteps by becoming the state's governor, a position he has held since. In 2018, he defeated a challenge by "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon.
Cuomo's daily briefings, which start at 11:00 am and are carried on major US TV networks, have become popular for his authoritative, but reassuring and understanding tone.
He has stressed the seriousness of the outbreak, imploring New Yorkers to stay indoors ("This is not a joke") and calling those still gathering outside as "self-destructive" and "insensitive."
But he has repeatedly urged residents not to panic, reminding them that the elderly and those with underlying health conditions are most at risk, saying fear can be more dangerous than the illness itself.
Known as a bit of a bulldog, Cuomo has also revealed a softer side -- naming a virus order after his mother Matilda -- and talking about the mental stresses of self-isolating.
"I live alone and I'm even getting annoyed with the dog being in one place," he said.
Last week, Cuomo playfully bickered with his TV anchor brother Chris Cuomo about which of them their mother loved more during a segment on CNN.
And writer Rebecca Fishbein wrote on the website Jezebel that the "intense and reasonable dislike of Cuomo" she had developed over the years may be turning into a crush.
- White House material? -
Doug Muzzio, political science professor at Baruch College, says the briefings have transformed how voters view the "tough guy.
"It's a combination of press conference and therapy session and a little stand-up comedy," he told AFP.
The empathy contrasts with Trump, who insulted a reporter who asked what his message was to scared Americans, and who has contradicted the advice of his own health professionals.
At one point on Saturday, #CuomoForPresident trended on Twitter, with actor Mark Ruffalo tweeting that New Yorkers "are lucky" to have him as a leader.
Not everyone is enamored though.
Many New Yorkers accuse Cuomo -- who regularly clashes with the left wing of the Democratic party, including Mayor Bill de Blasio -- of blocking progressive legislation.
They also blame him for secretly negotiating an Amazon headquarters in New York City, later scrapped under intense opposition, and for the recent departure of the popular head of the Big Apple's subway system.
Cuomo is believed to have considered presidential bids during the last two campaigns but ultimately decided to let other moderates run.
Commentators note that in 2024 he will be considerably younger than this year's Democratic frontrunners: septuagenarians Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
But they caution that voters can quickly change their minds about politicians.
"It may be ephemeral, but for this one moment he stands out to be the national leader we sort of look for," said Muzzio.
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Trump calls for quick end to US coronavirus lockdown
By Sebastian Smith with Peter Hutchison in New York
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Washington, March 24, 2020 (AFP) -
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he wants to loosen the coronavirus lockdown in the United States and restart the economy within three weeks, calling social distancing measures too disruptive.
"A lot of people agree with me. Our country -- it's not built to shut down," he said on Fox News. "You can destroy a country this way by closing it down."
"I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter," said Trump. Easter is on April 12, 19 days away.
Social distancing and quarantine measures have been instituted across much of the United States, with stay-at-home orders for more than a third of the population, bringing the world's biggest economy to an abrupt halt.
An Ipsos/Axios poll released Tuesday found that 74 percent of Americans have stopped attending large gatherings, while 48 percent have canceled travel plans, leaving airports deserted.
Another significant casualty of the shutdown has been the presidential election campaign, with Trump having to halt a relentless series of big rallies around the country.
Health experts have advised the measures as the foundation for preventing the easily transmitted, potentially fatal illness from multiplying uncontrollably.
Trump called for a 15-day period of observation, which expires early next week.
But he made clear that he thinks the response has been blown out of proportion, saying "we lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don't turn the country off."
"We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We didn't call up the automobile companies to say, 'Stop making cars.'"
- $2 trillion -
The plunge in activity and warnings of recession or even depression are a brutal reversal for what was until a few weeks ago a humming economy, with record low unemployment.
Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they were getting closer all the time to delivering a major boost by passing a nearly $2 trillion rescue package for businesses, ordinary Americans and hospitals reeling from the shutdown.
Republicans and Democrats have been wrangling on the bill for several days but news that they were nearing a deal sent battered stock prices on Wall Street soaring.
This would be the biggest emergency injection of money into the economy in history, dwarfing even the bailouts of 2008, when the worldwide financial crisis sent the US economy into a tailspin.
- 'Bullet train' -
More than 600 people have died from the new coronavirus in the United States, while the number of confirmed cases has now passed 50,000, a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University showed Tuesday.
The US has the third-highest number of confirmed cases globally, behind China and Italy.
And despite Trump's relentless optimism, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned Tuesday of "astronomical numbers" in the state and the nation's biggest city.
"We are not slowing it. And it is accelerating on its own," he said, comparing the spread of the disease to "a bullet train."
- Politics vs health? -
With his reelection campaign temporarily knocked off track, Trump is now seeking to turn the coronavirus calamity into a dramatic comeback story that will deliver him a second term in November.
One of his main claims to a second term, prior to the coronavirus outbreak, was the strong economy.
"We can't lose a Boeing, we can't lose some of these companies," he said on the Fox News broadcast from the White House. "If we lose those companies we're talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs, millions of jobs."
However, his push for a quick reopening of the economy carries the risk that some will see it as putting wealth over the survival of the sick, especially the vulnerable elderly.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said as much, urging those over 70 "not to sacrifice the country."
Cuomo, whose daily news conferences have made him a major national voice during the crisis, shot back at those calling for rapid economic reopening, saying "my mother is not expendable."
Despite being panned by opponents for his erratic messaging on the virus pandemic, Trump continues to get solid polling numbers, indicating that his likely Democratic opponent Joe Biden will not have an easy task.
In the latest Monmouth poll, 50 percent approved Trump's handling of the crisis, compared to 45 not approving.
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